


Found

by the_void_fox



Series: Keith Week 2016 [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Keith just really needs a hug, Past Abuse, Past Character Death, Sleepovers, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Team Bonding, Team as Family, Wishing on stars, could be read as klance at the end if you wish, keith is sad, not intended as shippy, past bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-08-18 12:19:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8161873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_void_fox/pseuds/the_void_fox
Summary: Day 5: Supernovas
Keith wishes on stars, all different kinds. It’s an unfortunate side effect of feeling alone.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Posting this now because I won't have time tomorrow.

There is a dark-haired five-year-old sitting in the gable of an orphanage, watching the meteor shower up above, fiery trails reduced to white streaks in the night sky. His violet eyes are wet and wide, and he trembles under his ratty blanket.

 

Sniffling, he closes his eyes and wishes like his mother taught him. He wishes she had never left him.

 

\---

 

On a rusty swing in an overgrown backyard, a boy lets his tears drip down as the sound of fighting echoes from the house. He brushes at them with the too-long sleeves of a tattered sweater, scuffing his shoes in the dirt. The bruises from yesterday’s recess bullies - and the ones from earlier - still ache, and he carefully wraps an arm around his torso.

 

As Earth’s own star rises, he wishes, not for the first time, that he was somewhere away from everyone.

 

\---

 

A young man looks up at the sunset horizon from the roof of a rundown shack, watching the moon creep overhead. His eyes are crusted with the aftermath of weeping and little sleep, and he grits his teeth before his hands clench into the shoulders of his red jacket and he curses at the stars above. For his mother, for the bullies, for the abuse and neglect, for his friend stolen away and those who brushed it aside. He doesn’t care anymore, he just wants someone to blame, wants the pain to stop.

 

As darkness falls, he wishes that everything would just stop.

 

\---

 

It’s the Castle of Lions equivalent to three-am, and Keith is the only one awake. He’s in the observation deck during a mandatory “bonding night” - sleepover and movies – his teammates snoring all around wrapped in blankets and nearly drowning in fluffy pillows. It all looks terribly comfortable and friendly, but Keith is not joining the pile. Instead, he sits on a window seat and watches the stars, shivering a little in his t-shirt and pyjama pants. All of space is laid out before him, planets and moons and so many stars, and it feels as if they’ve been travelling through the speckled expanse for years.

 

And then, as he watches mesmerised, a star explodes and dies, a tiny supernova far away.

 

What catches his breath in his throat is that it’s beautiful, a flare of bright, white hot gas expanding before trailing away into shimmering stardust. It’s sad too, that something so wonderful and somewhat incomprehensible has to die to create new stars. Or black holes.

 

As the last of the trails fade into the void, Keith makes a wish.

 

His eyes droop shut, sudden fatigue overtaking him, when there is the sound of movement from the floor and a small hand tugs on his ankle. Pidge looks up at him from under her eyelids, trying to ask why he’s not where the warmth is, why he’s not with them. His answer sticks in his throat – he doesn’t deserve people like his teammates, their unfailing strength and compassion and hope, things he doesn’t have. He shakes his head, trying to swallow past the lump in his throat, and Pidge’s eyes grow concerned, the sleep vanishing from her posture.

 

Keith nearly jumps out of his skin when Hunk drapes a blanket around him ( _when did he move from his spot?_ ). Shiro picks him up and just holds him as the tears mount ( _when did he start crying?)_ , and Keith twists his hands into the older man’s shirt, lets himself mourn for all the things he’s missed out on. He’s lowered to where Lance sits in a nest of overstuffed cushions, and the blue-eyed boy wraps long limbs around him, rubs his back and whispers comforting words, grounds him like only Lance knows how while the others move around the room.

 

The blankets and pillows are gathered into one big mound by Shiro while Hunk disappears in the direction of the kitchen. Pidge wires up her laptop to a viewing screen, and by the time Hunk returns with space cocoa and popcorn, the title sequence for _Shaun of the Dead_ has made its way onto the screen. Lance murmurs something about her love of purposely-bad movies, and a choked laugh finally makes its way out of Keith’s throat, though it is followed by a shuddering breath and more tears as his body purges itself of all its bottled negativity. He’s handed a steaming mug by Hunk, warming his icy hands, and Lance settles him a little more firmly in his grip – apparently he’ll refuse to let go until Keith is back to 100 percent. He’s a protective soul, a natural big brother, which is something that Keith’s never had.

 

Although, he reflects, he really has three now – though one is closer to a father than Keith has ever known – and sisters in Pidge and Allura, and Coran is a weird sort of... uncle, maybe?

 

And his eyes go wide as he looks around, noticing the princess joining the group and watching the screen curiously, asking questions about Earth entertainment. It came true. His wish had come true all along, before he’d even asked for it. Home was here. _Family_ was here.

 

Keith leans his head tentatively onto Lance’s shoulder. Pidge’s hand brushes his ankle as she leans forward during the exciting parts, and Shiro and Hunk are solid, warm presences on either side. He’s safe here. He is loved.

 

And finally – that lonely child watching meteors, the scared boy under the sunrise, the grieving young man cursing at the sky – finally, Keith smiles and drifts into sleep.


End file.
